The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 219

Chapter 113-1

Zara

The heavy silence of the penthouse evening is broken only by the rhythmic, muffled scrape of a stretcher frame moving down the hallway.

Dad and Stitch are hauling Bishop off the living room sofa, Stitch having decided that he’s stable enough to finally move. They carry his limp, heavily bandaged weight toward the second guest room at the back of the apartment.

Bishop is awake enough to groan, his knuckles stark white where he’s gripping the sheets, but the high dose of pain meds keeps his legs useless beneath him.

“Watch his right thigh, Cobra,” Stitch grunts, maneuvering around the doorframe. “Keep that leg straight.”

They vanish into the guest room, the heavy oak door swinging partially shut behind them, leaving the main room feeling strangely empty.

Jade and I stand near the kitchen island. Jade is holding her rapidly-cooling tea, her fingers wrapped around the ceramic so tightly her skin is translucent. She’s staring at the dark stain on the rug where the blood seeped through the bandages.

She and I scrubbed that spot for almost twenty minutes this morning, and again this afternoon- but I can still see the blood. Locke will need to rip up all the rug and replace it. There’s no getting these stains out, I

know.

Locke is standing by the floor-to-ceiling glass, his broad shoulders back, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He’s staring out at the moon over the ocean, his jaw set into a hard, unyielding line. Mayhem sits on a barstool three feet away, leaning his elbows on the marble counter, his eyes bloodshot, staring down at his raw knuckles.

I step away from the island, the hardwood cold under my bare feet, and walk up behind Locke. I reach out, pressing my palm against the warm, solid expanse of his back between his shoulder blades, hand him a fresh cup of coffee.

He doesn’t flinch, but he doesn’t relax either. The tension humming through his frame feels like a live wire, coiled and waiting for a spark.

“You’ve been standing here for almost half an hour,” I say softly, keeping my voice low. “Stitch said Bishop’s stable. You can stop holding your breath.”

Locke takes a slow, deep breath, his chest expanding under my palm, but his eyes never leave the snowy horizon. “He’s stable for now. That shot took out a hell of a lot of tissue and muscle, Zara. He’s not walking for two months.”

Across the room, Jade sets her mug down with a sharp clack against the marble. She turns her gaze toward Mayhem, her eyebrows pulled down into a tight, anxious knot.

“How bad is it out there?” Jade asks, her voice cutting clean through the quiet room. “At the scene. On the

road.”

Chapter 113

Claim

Mayhem shifts on his barstool, his eyes flickering toward her for a fraction of a second before dropping back to his hands. “It’s taken care of, Jade.”

“That wasn’t my question.” Jade says. “You guys were out there for hours after the comms went dark. Knox’s convoy was choked out, Bishop took a shotgun blast, and Byte said the whole grid was jammed. What did you leave behind on that road?”

Mayhem lets out a heavy, tired breath through his nose. He reaches out, taking Jade’s wrist gently, trying to pull her closer to his lap, but she pulls back just an inch… enough to refuse the comfort.

“It’s handled,” Mayhem repeats, his deep voice flat and completely devoid of detail. “The tanker is locked down in the barn. Knox doesn’t know where the shipment went, and the road is clear.”

“Clear how?” Jade demands, her voice rising, a burst of red spilling across her cheeks. “Bishop lost half a gallon of blood in the dirt! You think the police aren’t going to notice it? Take samples? Test for DNA?”

Locke turns away from the window, setting his mug down on the glass side table. He looks at me, then at Jade, his eyes heavy with an unreadable, stony quiet.

“Mayhem gave you the answer, Jade,” Locke says, his low voice carrying a subtle, firm edge. “The scene is managed. The club took care of the loose ends. That’s all you need to worry about right now.”

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